Division championship paraphernalia

I was trolling around on the NFL.com website this week and they were blasting their viewers with an opportunity to buy a Chicago Bears NFC North Championship hat. Tell me exactly who the NFL is appealing to when the ask their fans to shell out $24.99 for something like this? The first question is..why does this league feel like it needs to gouge its fans after at every opportunity?
The second question is bit different but when did we turn into France?? Who gives a crap about anything but the ultimate prize, there is no glory in second place. I have never in my life bought any championship piece of paraphernalia and wouldn't be caught dead wearing an NFL Wildcard participant hat.

First of all it is incredibly stupid and a colossal waste of money because even if you were dumb enough to lay out $25 on one when exactly would you wear it. Maybe in the week before the playoffs but then again you'd never get it delivered in time. But assuming you do get it in time, what happens if your team loses in the first round why would you give a crap that they won the NFC West as your only goal should to win a championship.
But then what happens if your team wins do you get a hat for being the winner of a playoff game too. And if you did what if they win the Conference then you'll need a new hat (which I still wouldn't buy) and then if you win the Superbowl you've laid out $100 total dollars on four shitty looking hats. I hate this everybody deserves a prize little league mentality, when was it OK to treat your sports-team like a Kindergarten shoe-tying test where you get a sticker even if Joey ties his shoe to a chair.

But there must be a market for it unless this one of those CafePress deals where the NFL only makes a hat if it actually ordered or then again maybe this is just part of the NFL outreach program to be able to hand out a bunch of shirts and hats in Uganda.
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